Experts are urging authorities not to permit the demolition of the Transgas buildings

Prague - Several experts in architecture and art history have requested in an open letter that the group of Transgas buildings on Vinohradská Street in Prague not be demolished. The owner applied for demolition of the 1970s buildings in July; if the authorities grant it, demolition could begin in mid-August. The state refused to declare the buildings as cultural monuments. The owner wants to build new buildings in their place. Some experts have already opposed the demolition of Transgas. The signatories of the open letter emphasize that the buildings have exceptional value and that they could be preserved with some adjustments.

CTK reported on the letter addressed to Prague 2 and the owner of the buildings, HB Reavis, as conveyed by Klára Brůhová, a lecturer at the Institute of Theory and History of Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University. It has also been signed by historian and theorist of art and architecture Rostislav Švácha, Lukáš Beran from the Research Center for Industrial Heritage at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University, and other scientific and academic workers.

"We request that you reconsider the consequences of the potential demolition of the Transgas buildings, as its realization would lead to another irreversible loss of an outstanding architectural ensemble from the 1960s to the 1980s," stated the signatories of the letter. They remind that in the last decade, buildings such as Hotel Praha, the telephone exchange building in Prague - Dejvice, the mazut heating plant in Prague at Invalidovna, or the department store Ještěd in Liberec have been demolished.

According to them, Transgas is one of the highest quality examples of architecture from this period, which they describe as one of the most threatened components of the domestic cultural heritage. They want alternative options for dealing with the Transgas ensemble to be considered - for example, through partial interventions that would preserve the character of the complex and whose design would ideally come from a public competition.

HB Reavis plans to build a multifunctional building on the vacant site according to a design by the architectural studio Jakub Cigler Architekti. According to earlier statements from the developer, it could be completed at the beginning of 2021.

The complex of the former Transgas Central Gas Dispatching and the Ministry of Fuel and Energy is located above Wenceslas Square and beneath the building of Czech Radio. It is the work of the team Jindřich Malátek, Ivo Loos, Zdeněk Eisenreich, and Václav Aulický. The intention to demolish the group of buildings has sparked renewed debates about architecture from the socialist era, which has its supporters and critics among both the general public and experts.